The holiday pageant season is underway, and while there are a few tweaks you can use in the near-term to ensure your sound is sensational for the performances you have planned, the events and worship services hosted this year should also serve as an audition for the future of your facility.
To help with this season’s events and next year’s planning, here are key tips to help you achieve amazing audio both for this month’s holiday worship and to assist with identifying talking points to bring to your local AV professional integrator as you look toward next year’s budget.
Check Your List Twice
System breakdowns are the quickest way to halt an event. To protect yourself from disaster, make sure you have the basic backup devices that are simple to swap in and out. These include additional cables, batteries, power supplies, and microphones.
Even if you consider yourself a small- or medium-sized church, there’s still time to add an extra power amp in the rack as insurance against a worst-case scenario.
Even More Power
While it’s great to be prepared behind the scenes, there are also some simple additions to be made that will be quite noticeable to those in attendance. Renting standalone speakers, additional amps, larger mixers for additional live instruments or microphones, and even lighting can immediately upgrade your performance in short order.
Further, you can get professionals to load-in, set-up, and load-out around your events. No need to handle the complexity when professionals are available to help out.
Plan for December—Both This Year and Next
Several of these upgrades can be done with future-proofing in mind. Speak to a local integrator about what you need in the short term, and what you might want in the long term. A rental system should be seen as a trial run. An upgraded amplifier should come with future use in mind.
But what should you consider when looking at your specific church?
First, identify any “tricky spots” in your facility in terms of odd angles or atypical surfaces. High ceilings, balconies, ornate finishes, or reverberant materials all play a component in sound design. If you think you have a challenging space, invite an integrator out to see it.
Also consider how you use sound. Is it presentation heavy or is there also a strong musical component? How loud does your music get? Is a live performance involved?
In every scenario—from a small church to a large one, and from a recorded audio setup to a live band—there are impressive solutions that can make your audio more engaging.
Season’s Savings
The big gift this year is that professional audio equipment has never been more affordable or accessible than it is right now. And with the holiday season upon us, there are deals to be had from manufacturers like Ashly Audio.
Bottom line, it is always the right to get a system up and running for the holiday season or to use all-year-round.
